I just finished TLB...

Fair Olvin

New member
...and i have to say that i'm somewhat disappointed. i was expecting a huge epic battle like the one at Helm's Deep in LOTR, or the battle in LWW. 5 or 6 people against an entire army isn't quite what i had in mind in the last battle for Narnia...

but other than that, the book was awesome.
 
Well, huge epic battles weren't part of what Lewis was getting at in his fiction. Even in his most "combative" work, That Hideous Strength, where the conflict had the potential to get quite dramatic, the victory is won by very subtle and unexpected ways.

In Last Battle, I think Lewis' imagination was painting a very accurate picture of the condition of the Church. She is beset from without by ancient enemies and betrayed from within by self-serving members, her true leaders betrayed and in exile with only a handful of faithful followers while false leaders bully and oppress the faithful, her warriors picked off in isolation (like Roonwit) while others fall prey to despair (like the dwarfs). Just when all seems lost ("Narnia is no more."), and the remnant of the faithful determine to hold true to the vision even if there seems to be no hope - that's just when the Mighty One shows up, and we find out that He was in control all along. The direst of fates (the Stable Door, representative of death) turns out to be the gateway to paradise. The most horrible enemy (Tash) can be dismissed with a mere word. All that seemed lost and destroyed we find preserved, and all that did the destroying is banished forever.

Try this: go to Silver Chair and read Puddleglum's statement to the Witch right after he grinds his foot into the fire and breaks the spell. Then re-read the account of Tirian's decision to fight the Last Battle. See how the themes correspond? Puddleglum says, in effect, "I'm going to be true to Narnia even if there's no Narnia to be true to." So does Tirian. They have faith in the teeth of everything their senses are telling them. Puddleglum honestly expects to die in the Underworld, never to see the sun or sea again. Tirian expects to die in the Western Waste and Narnia to become an enslaved Calormene province. In both cases, their faith is rewarded.
 
yeah...i know he did it all for the purpose of allegory...im just saying, that with a name like "The Last Battle", you kinda get the impression that it's going to be HUGE....ya know..?
 
Good point, Fair Olvin! I bet when they make the movie, it will be a MUCh BIGGER battle!
:)
 
but how is that not impressive, jimmy?

and anyway, it's not allegorical.

"If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all."

~c. s. lewis
 
inkspot said:
Good point, Fair Olvin! I bet when they make the movie, it will be a MUCh BIGGER battle!
:)


I agree, Inky. For example, when we all read LWW, the Battle of Beruna Fords in there was over in less than a handful of paragraphs. Since people like to watch action, and battles are dramatic, I suspect that in the Last Battle movie, the directors and producers will enact a very large, very powerful series of battle scenes. Think LOTR for example, with the clash between good and evil in there...to me, that's akin to the Last Battle between the forces of good and evil.


As dramatic and beautiful would also be the destruction of Old Narnia and the creation of New Narnia, and all the great happiness that goes into being with Aslan once again, and the sadness and loss for those who were not saved by the King.
 
The door that goes into Aslan's kingdom is representative of the Narrow door that Jesus refers to when He says that "Narrow is the road and narrow is the gate that leads to life and few there be that find it. The few in Narnia that find it initially represent that so I am not convinced that there will be a huge battle going on between good and evil - also symbolic of the battle of Armegeddon. I just hope I live long enough to see all the films come out. :p
 
Somebody has prolly said this alread (i only read the first post ;) ) , but in LWW- the book, the battle is barely mentioned. But in the movie, It is one of the main scenes.
 
It is a big battle, just not one of arms. Rather, it is abattle to help save the faith of narnias and to stay loyal to aslan to the end.
 
Narborg said:
It is a big battle, just not one of arms. Rather, it is abattle to help save the faith of narnias and to stay loyal to aslan to the end.
I agree - this is the true "last battle" of Narnia - to stay true to what Narnia is all about in the face of certain defeat. Most of the dwarfs fail, as do many of the Narnians themselves. Note that only a few actually "went over" and fought for the enemy; the majority simply lost heart and slunk away into the woods.

Reminds me of Jesus' words: "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" The implication is, "just barely" - and in Narnia, by the time the true Last Battle came about on Stable Hill, there were only a handful of faithful.
 
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